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Disney Link To the F.B.I. And Hoover Is Disclosed

By HERBERT MITGANG

Published: May 6, 1993

From 1940 until his death in 1966, Walt Disney served as a secret informer for the Los Angeles office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to documents that have come to light under the Freedom of Information Act.

Details about the film maker's F.B.I. connection emerge for the first time in "Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince," an unauthorized biography by Marc Eliot to be published in July by Birch Lane Press.

Mr. Eliot, who has written several books on popular culture, provided a copy of the Disney file to The New York Times so that information and direct quotations in the book could be verified against the Government documents. Experience with similar F.B.I. dossiers leaves no doubt that the material submitted by Mr. Eliot is authentic. As it happens, because many of the 570 pages in the Disney file are blacked out or withheld for national security reasons, it cannot be determined what names of Hollywood figures Disney passed on to the bureau as Communists or subversives.

During a strike of animators at the Disney studio in 1941, however, he publicly accused the strike leaders of "Communistic agitation," according to an advertisement taken out by Disney in Variety on July 2, 1941. And when Disney, whose right-wing leanings were well-known, testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in Washington, he named several of the animators who had led the strike as Communists. What Hoover Got in Return

In return for Disney's information, J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the bureau, allowed Disney to film in F.B.I. headquarters in Washington. For his part, Disney allowed Hoover access to some Disney scripts, and made slight changes in a few lesser-known movies and an episode of "The Mickey Mouse Club" television show to mollify the director. There is no evidence that revisions were requested in any of Disney's classic animated features.

Because of the information Disney provided the bureau, he was made a "full Special Agent in Charge Contact" in 1954. An "S.A.C. Contact" was usually a trusted informer who could provide transportation and equipment as well as public relations services to the bureau. Disney was not the only important informer in Hollywood; while president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947, Ronald Reagan was designated "Source T-10" by the F.B.I., meaning he was a confidential source with the code name "T-10."

As a bureau contact, Disney reported on the activities of Hollywood actors, writers, producers, directors, technicians and union activists suspected of political subversion. The earliest communication between Disney and Hoover appears in a July 1936 memorandum in which Hoover writes, "I am indeed pleased that we can be of service to you in affording you a means of absolute identity throughout your lifetime." The meaning of "absolute identity" is unclear, but the document signifies the beginning of a long-term relationship between the two men.

In 1944, the battle lines were drawn against suspected Hollywood subversives with the creation of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, an anti-Communist group that consisted mainly of studio executives. Its officers included Sam Wood, a producer and director whose credits included "A Night at the Opera" and "Kitty Foyle," as president, and Disney, as first vice president. Among its members was Lela Rogers, the mother of Ginger Rogers, who testified during the hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities that her daughter had turned down many films -- including one based on Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" -- because they were "un-American." Data on 'Compic' Sought

A memorandum sent sent in 1947 from F.B.I. headquarters in Washington to its Los Angeles office said the bureau wanted to know about "Compic" (Communist pictures). That year, when the House committee began its hearings on Communist infiltration of the movies, Disney followed Mr. Reagan and the actor George Murphy as a principal witness. On the stand, he attributed the strike of studio animators to Communist union leaders and said he was smeared by such "Communist-front" organizations as the League of Women Voters. The next day, he sent a telegram to the committee saying he had made a mistake; he meant the League of Women Shoppers.

The F.B.I. and Disney found an opportunity for mutual benefit in Disneyland, which opened in 1955. A document in his file reads: "Mr. Disney has recently established a business association with the American Broadcasting Company-Paramount Theaters Inc. for the production of a series of television shows, which for the most part are scheduled to be filmed at Disneyland, a multmillion-dollar amusement park being established under Mr. Disney's direction in the vicinity of Anaheim, Calif. Mr. Disney has volunteered representatives of this office complete access to the facilities of Disneyland for use in connection with official matters and for recreational purposes."

In return, Disney sought cooperation from the bureau for filming. In 1956, a Disney aide requested the right to use the bureau's offices in Washington for the Mickey Mouse Club television program. Disney officials promised that the Mouseketeers would be seen enthusing about agents on their shooting range as "great marksmen" and the F.B.I. "would be something which children would look up to." Bureau officials found the resulting film "complimentary to the Bureau," but advised that "a few changes should be made in the script." Changes were made, though precisely what they were is not clear from the file. Role of Agent Changed

In 1961, Hoover saw a script of a Disney comedy, "Moon Pilot," and found that it depicted bureau agents in an "uncomplimentary manner." He ordered the Los Angeles bureau chief to tell Disney personally "that the Bureau will strongly object to any portrayal of the F.B.I. in this film." Disney replied that he would never portray the bureau "other than in a favorable light due to his esteem for the Director and the Bureau." The script was changed so that the actor Edmund O'Brien, who had been playing an F.B.I. agent, became a generic Government security agent instead.

Hoover intervened in another Disney film, "That Darn Cat," produced in 1965. A memorandum from the bureau said that the main character in the story, a cat who is an undercover F.B.I. agent known as D. C. (short for "Darn Cat"), "happily forages in garbage cans every night," which "seems to ridicule the F.B.I. agent." This memorandum goes on to say, "The Crimes Records Division will continue to follow this matter closely through the Los Angeles Office to insure that if the proposed movie is made the Bureau's interests are protected."

The bureau complained to Disney, but no changes were made in the characters. While the bureau was unhappy with the film, the screenwriters, Mildred and Gordon Gordon, were pleased by the success of "That Darn Cat," and, according to a memorandum in the Disney file, went on to set up their own company, called Meow Inc.

The Disney dossier is a historic reminder of the cold war years when Hollywood's writers, actors, directors and producers and their organizations clashed about political beliefs, when blacklists prevented writers and performers from working and when Congressional committees put movie people on public trial. With the cooperation of some of Hollywood's leading lights, the effect was sometimes to censor American movies.